Melvyn Bragg's BBC Radio 4 History in Our Time - The Statue of Liberty   Melvyn Bragg and guests John Keane, Robert Gildea and Kathleen Burk discuss the Statue of Liberty, a token of friendship between France and America. The statue is part of a long standing intellectual and political relationship between two revolutionary powers, symbolising their shared sense of dynamism, democracy and the ideal of freedom. Thursday 14 February 2008 Click Here to download to the audio file. Alternatively visit the History in Our Time website THE STATUE OF LIBERTY "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”. With these words, inscribed inside her pedestal, the Statue of Liberty has welcomed immigrants to America since 1903. But the Statue of Liberty is herself an immigrant, born in Paris she was shipped across the Atlantic in 214 separate crates, a present to the Americans from the French. She is a token of friendship forged in the fire of twin revolutions, finessed by thinkers like Alexis de Tocqueville and expressed in the shared language of liberty. But why was this colossal statue built, who built it and what did liberty mean to the Frenchmen who created her and the Americans who received her? Contributors Robert Gildea, Professor of Modern History at Oxford University Kathleen Burk, Professor of Modern Contemporary History at University College London John Keane, Professor of Politics at the University of Westminster